Hello, I am Hollie, Rudi’s mum; I am on a mission to spread awareness about developmental language disorder.
Rudi is 5 in November and will be formally diagnosed with DLD.
Rudi needs significant help with speech and language and additional time to process. Rudi’s speech and language disorder means Rudi has limited expressive language which impacts on his ability to formulate sentences.
Rudi’s story starts off by me noticing he was late to babble and even later to talk. I found a highly respected speech and language therapist who works closely with Rudi and has done for around a 1 year. Rudi was wrongly diagnosed with hearing loss at just 2 and he wore two hearing aids. After going under general anesthesia they told me the news that his hearing is 100% normal and this will be speech rather than hearing.
I was and currently still do use British Sign Language as a brilliant tool to allow Rudi to show me what he wants or something he is trying to tell me. He can sign with confidence, it helps reduce frustration. He has used BSL since he was two and it has brought on his speech as BSL is visual and Rudi is a visual learner the sign helps him find the word he wants as Rudi needs extra time to process information.
Fast forward to now.. .We have NHS speech and language appointments to help with Rudi’s speech and language and we have a private therapist who Rudi see’s once a week for 1 hour. This private support has changed Rudi’s life. It has been confirmed Rudi has DLD, always has. He qualifies for a speech and language base but has to go to mainstream school first to show that he needs intense support from trained professionals to learn to the best of his ability. I am Rudi’s voice and I need his voice heard, He has been through so much & now I need his story to be heard to help other families. DLD needs more awareness so children get the support they need and deserve, I am spreading awareness everywhere I go. Developmental Language Disorder makes understanding and using both receptive language and expressive language extremely difficult. It has a significant impact on Rudi’s communication as he struggles to express feelings, ideas and story telling. I want to help others by sharing Rudi’s story he is amazing and he is now working on sentence structure so he is doing so well with the right support, it shows how incredibly important the right intervention is.
Rudi is the most incredible little boy with the brightest, creative brain that I’m so proud of. I’m a mum on a mission to help everywhere I go! DLD is not a sad diagnosis it’s a beautiful one I would love to get the word out there so more people know about it
- Hollie – Rudi’s mum
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